Rantz: Central Washington U. wastes tax dollars studying ‘TransRural lives’ around Seattle

In the waning weeks of the Biden administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded tax dollars to Central Washington University (CWU) to study so-called “TransRural lives” across the Pacific Northwest. The goal is, in part, to create research guides “to help those interested in teaching this material in their classrooms.”

The $247,131 taxpayer-funded grant allows “The TransRural Lives Project,” which is described as a to celebrate “digital storytelling project exploring and celebrating the lives of transgender older adults who live in or have strong ties to rural areas and small towns in the Pacific Northwest.”

The program, run by CWU professors, was awarded on October 1, 2024, and is expected to continue through September 30, 2027. But why are federal tax dollars and state resources going to this “research?”

Rantz Exclusive: ‘Chaos’ at Tacoma Police as chief absent for weeks with no explanation, union calls for separation

What does it mean to study TransRural Lives of Washingtonians?

According to the NEH grant program page, the researchers will spend 36 months documenting subjects, leading to the creation of a digital repository telling their stories. The project will record at least 600 audio vignettes, transcriptions and scholarly guides.

“This digital project seeks to document and make accessible these understudied narratives and the transgender histories they reveal through an interactive website,” the NEH grant program page said. “TransRural Lives offers analytical examinations of thematics related to transgender older adults and rural living left out of prevailing socio-political discussions.”

Phase One of the TransRural Lives project focuses on Washington residents. Phase Two expands the project to Oregon, Montana, Idaho and British Columbia. The funding was first flagged by The Daily Wire.

More from Jason Rantz: While companies reject DEI, Sound Transit to pay nearly $500K on Chief Diversity Officer

Here are some stories

The TransRural Lives Project has already collected a number of stories from transgender Washingtonians living in rural parts of the state. The stories cover a number of topics or themes, including gender identity, relationships, living as trans and navigating relationships.

One of the documented stories focuses on a trans band named “The Nasty Habits,” fronted by Veronica Steed, a self-identified crossdresser from Forks. The now Seattle-based band is described as “definitely not your average girls!” They started playing as a band in Port Angeles more than 15 years ago.

“Going to the peninsula, going out that way, we played in Sequim at least several times. Once or twice, I think, outside of, there’s a large casino in outside of Sequim, but we played in town in Sequim and that was sort of so-so because I don’t think that they were quite ready for us,” Veronica told TransRural Lives.

The project also met with Emily Sloan of Birch Bay, who detailed her decision to identify as transgender when she was 62.

“I remember April 14, 2020. I was sitting watching this one set of videos from a, you know, put on by a trans women [sic]. Three of them and, when I got to the third video, something just exploded in my head. I said, ‘Oh my God,’ you know, ‘I’m trans.’ You know, like, this person’s experience is mine. And then it was just like, it’s hard to describe, it was just kind of explosive and I spent a few days kind of dumbfounded for a while, trying to figure out what to do about this,” Emily explained.

More from Jason Rantz: Local media coverage of Trump’s ICE raids is embarrassing, ignorant

Why is this research important?

It’s not entirely clear why federal funds are being used for this project since there appears to be more documenting than researching, and it’s unclear what value this research would offer. But the TransRural Lives Project plans to develop research guides for classroom study.

“Over the next year, the TransRural Lives Team will begin to develop scholarly guides on themes about the transgender older adults featured in the project, such as community building, rural living in the Pacific Northwest, gender expression journeys, aging and self-perception, creative forms of care and the dynamic identities of transgender older adults across their lives,” the site said.

It’s not yet clear how these classroom guides would be used and which level of students are the intended audience. The project’s leads are CWU professors who appear to have very radical interests.

More from Jason Rantz: ‘Emilia Perez’ soars with Oscar nods, but woke progressives undermine its appeal

Who is in charge of studying TransRural Washingtonians?

The TransRural Project is run by two professors and two undergraduate students of varying gender identities and personal pronouns.

Associate Professor M. Eliatamby-O’Brien is the CWU director for the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, with areas of focus listed as “postcolonial literature, critical race studies, interdisciplinary gender studies and transnational/transpacific literary studies.” The professor goes by “they/them” pronouns. Eliatamby-O’Brien’s research is focused on “the experiences of gender, sexual and racially-minoritized forced migrants through engagement with digital life narratives, digital storytelling and multimodal rhetorics.”

CWU Sociology Professor Griff Tester is also a part of the program. He lists his research focuses as “sexuality, gender and gerontology, specifically the social ties and support relationships of queer and transgender adults in later life.”

A CWU spokesperson said the project coordinator does not wish to comment about the project.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason on X, formerly known as Twitter,  Instagram and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz